A Realistic Return to Boxing For Manny Pacquiao in 2023
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 08 Dec 2022
Manny Pacquiao, the former fighting Senator and Pride of the Philippines makes a grand return to the square ring as he faces South Korean martial artist DK Yoo this Saturday, December 10 at the Korea International Exhibition Center in an exhibition fight set for six rounds.
The fight is intended to raise funds to build more homes for his homeless Filipino countrymen which has been the main advocacy of Pacquiao who is the first and only fighter to win eight world championships in as many boxing weight divisions.
DK Yoo is a self-defense instructor. He has nearly 700k YouTube subscribers. Yoo uses his page to teach various martial arts and boxing moves via the Warfare Combat System. The 42-year-old has competed in one exhibition fight. It was a non-scored bout in 2021 against MMA fighter Bradley Scott.
"Obviously, I realize Pacquiao will be the heavy favorite," said Yoo, via The Korea Times. "But I am bigger, and I hope to take advantage of that. I am not thinking about the result right now. My goal is to train hard and show a great athlete like Pacquiao what I am capable of."
Speculations are rife that Pacquiao after in exhibition fight will eventually return to competitive professional boxing as his close friend and chief trainer Buboy Fernandez claimed that Manny still has some of his best qualities that made him one of the greatest boxers of all time.
It is however doubtful if he could compete against the likes of Errol Spence and Terrence Crawford or even the new generation fighters as Jaron Ennis, Eimantas Stanionis and Virgil Ortiz. Though last year, Manny was about to face Spence in a unification fight that got cancelled when it was discovered that Errol had eye injury.
Manny instead fought Cuban expat Yordenis Ugas for the WBA welterweight super belt in which he was defeated in a competitive bout after which he announced his retirement.
It is held doubtful if Manny could compete at high level again at his former division, the welterweights.
However, there is this one fight that he could make coming back to boxing in 2023 that would not only generate much money but would create huge impact on the fans and make boxing history.
That is a catchweight fight against Ryan Garcia who is being bruited as the next Oscar De La Hoya, incidentally his former benefactor and technically still his promoter.
Recall that Pacquiao really rose to global prominence in 2008 after his stirring eighth round stoppage over the then still legendary De La Hoya in a welterweight catchweight fight when Manny was essentially a lightweight.
Picture a reprise of that but in reverse role order with Manny as the Oscar who is wanting to relive his old glory and wants to show that he could still fight and tame a decidedly younger upcoming star and Ryan Garcia as the young impetuous Manny out to conquer the world of boxing.
Fact is, Ryan Garcia has called on Manny several times when Manny was still fighting actively and on a winning streak before the pandemic struck in late 2019 and early 2020 putting boxing and almost everything in a standstill.
If the interest and the ambition of Kingry are still there as he had oft stated before of a fight against a great and legend as Pacquiao, then this dream ring duel will not be that hard to realize within 2023.
If Oscar De La Hoya is wanting a payback time, he will the first among the many interested organizers to put up this fight notwithstanding acrimonious relationship with Ryan Garcia.
This is worth exploring by both Manny and Ryan Garcia.
And it would be very interesting if history will repeat itself as many comeback fights of the greats from Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali had resulted to utter failures.
Or will Manny once again be the exception.
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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